DOI: https://doi.org/10.58874/SAAT.2022.186
Abstract:Sound reflections occurring only on floor and ceiling usually have the same azimuthal angle as the direct sound. Their energy thus adds to the direct sound with binaural cues similar to those of the direct sound. The anticipated benefits are of improved source localization and, for a frontal target, of higher binaural coherence of the ear signals. This modelling study investigated these hypotheses using a shoebox room whose specular reflections were modelled with the room acoustic simulation of the Simulated Open Field Environment (SOFE). Adding floor and ceiling reflections decorrelated the binau- ral ear signals and added late reverberant energy – C50 was higher without a floor or a ceiling. Binaural cues for very low and very high elevation angles converge to zero, i.e. to more centered binaural cues compared to those of a lateral direct sound source. An analysis with mapping these reflections into the horizontal plane did not show consistent evidence for an increase of correlation or coherence due to floor or ceiling reflections.
Keywords:spatial hearing in rooms, speech intelligibility, effects of reverberation
Pages:105-108
Paper: